DIMITRI BOTCHKOV Mountaineering in the Tien Shan: An Historical Survey

(Plates 5-9, 18-20)

Early exploration The Tien Shan has long been known to the Chinese as the high region thatborders the Taklamakhan desert to the north. Yet as recently as 150 years ago, the only available information about the range consisted of semi-mythological stories told by travellers: by Buddhist pilgrims, and by Chinese, Tartar and Russian dealers and officials. For example, the Buddhist pilgrim Suan-Tsan, who in the seventh century walked from to Issyk­ Kul across the passes of the range, was strongly impressed by the glaciers and summits ofthe Central Tien Shan:

The snows accumulated here since the beginning of the world have turned to ice blocks that melt neither in spring nor in summer. Smooth fields of solid and brilliant ice extend infinitely, with high ice walls overhanging on both sides. Cold winds blow strongly, and travellers frequently fall prey to dragons. Those following this way should not wear red clothes nor speak loudly. Those who ignore this precaution may suffer many evils. It is difficult to avoid death here.

His words were no exaggeration: during the trip thirteen of his fellow­ travellers lost their lives. Europeans have known of the Tien Shan from the stories of merchants transporting their goods along the Great Silk Road. However, a systematic study of the range was only initiated in the mid-19th century, after the Central Asian territories had been attached to Russia. A key role in the study was played by the Russian Geographical Society and, in particular, by the Russian geographer Petr Semenov. His journeys of 1856 and 1857 helped geographers to answer many challenging questions, since nobody had previously believed that glaciers existed in this mountain region. By virtue of his discovery of a large glacier flowing down the northern slopes of the Sarydzhas ridge, Semenov remedied this fallacy, and became the first European to see the Khan massif, which he described when viewed from the Kok-Dzhar Pass on the Terskey ridge:

26 MOUNTAINEERING IN THE TIEN SHAN 27

We were all blinded by a surprising view. Directly to the south there was the greatest mountain ridge we had ever seen. It consisted entirely of snow giants which, to my left and right, I could number no less than thirty. All this ridge, together with inter-summit gaps, was covered by an unbroken permafrost snow blanket. Just in the middle of these giants there was a separate high, snow-white, sharp pyramid that, from the elevation ofthe col, seemed at least double the height ofthe other summits.

Semenov had wrongly concluded that the snow-white pyramid before him was the legendary Khan Tengri, an error which was not actually corrected until recently. His confusion, however, was perfectly understandable: the local people would undoubtedly have told him of a dominant peak known as 'Khan Tengri', or 'Lord of the Skies'. Moreover, from this viewpoint, Semenov would not have been able to see the 7439m mass of nearby Pobeda. What Semenov did not know, however, was that from ancient times the name 'Khan Tengri' had referred to the highest mountain in the Kokshaal ridge, the whole of which was hidden from him. In addition, the Kyrgyz' epic poem 'The Manas' tells us that Khan Tengri is located at the head of the-Temil'su ~Iron} river, which-is-fed-by-the-Temirsu glacier._This glaciel' flows out from the southern slopes of Pik Pobeda, which dominates the Chinese side of the Kokshaal Ridge - all of which strongly suggests that the correct name for the 7439m peak is, in fact, 'Khan Tengri'. Further proof of this is the fact that the mountain we now call 'Khan Tengri' was always called 'Kan Too' by the Kyrgyz tribes inhabiting the range. In Kyrgyz, this means 'Bloody Mountain', a clear reference to the appearance of this great pyramid of white marble in the evening. Illuminated by the setting sun, it looks like a bloody blade imbedded in the dark blue sky. Thirty years after Semenov's exploration, in 1886, the Russian Geographical Society sent another expedition to the Khan Tengri massif. This was headed by Ivan Ignatiev who studied the glacier discovered by Semenov more thoroughly and named it after him. At the same time he estimated the height of Khan Tengri to be 7320m. He descended along the valley of the river Sarydzhas, crossed the Sarydzhas ridge and discovered the valley of the Inylchek river. Travelling up the valley, Ignatiev eventually reached the Inylchek glacier, estimating its length as 12km, completely unaware that he had discovered the longest glacier in the world, its true length being over 70kms. In 1902 Gottfried Merzbacher, a Munich geographer worked in the Khan Tengri region. l The expedition was supported by the Russian Geographical Society and consisted of scientists, experienced alpinists, local guides and numerous porters. The expedition was well equipped and employed both pack and riding horses, their main purpose being the study of the region's physical relief, the determination of the exact position ofKhan Tengri, and verification of the widely accepted view that this Tien Shan summit was the centre of the entire mountain system. 28 THE ALPINE JOURNAL 2000

The expedition failed in its efforts, so the following year Merzbacher returned. Advancing a mere 6-8km a day over the tortuous glacial terrain, he finally discovered that the Inylchek glacier divided into two branches. From the meadow at the glacier junction, Merzbacher saw for the first time the stunning glacial lake which today bears his name. He went on to discover that Khan Tengri stood on the ridge separating the northern and southern branches of the glacier. On the basis of this new information, Merzbacher and his group proceeded for a further 15km, at which point he and two guides continued alone, not without difficulty, until all three eventually stood at the foot of the peak.

Khan Tengri Almost 30 years later Merzbacher's discoveries were put to good use when Khan Tengri was climbed for the first time. Mikhail Pogrebetski had succeeded in arousing the interest of the Ukranian Academy of Sciences, and in 1931 he came to the Inylchek glacier as the head of a large and well­ equipped expedition. In addition to scientific work, the group had arrived with the purpose of climbing Khan Tengri, which they successfully did by ascending the now notorious Semenovskogo Glacier to the West Col, from where they followed the West Ridge to the summit. This now constitutes the normal route from the south side, although because of the dangers of the glacier, many teams prefer to reach the West Col by ascending the North Ridge of Pik Chapaev from a base on the North Inylchek glacier. In 1936, the second and third ascents of Khan Tengri were made by the Pogrebetski route. On 24 August, Kazakh alpinists Evgenii Kolokolnikov, Leonid Kibardin and Ivan Tyutyunikov climbed to the summit, whilst on 5 September an ascent was made by the brothers Evgenii and Vitalii Abalakov, Leonid Gutman, Mikhail Dadiomov and Lentz Saladin. During the descent, Saladin got frostbite and died, thus becoming the first in a long list of victims amongst those who dared to penetrate into the heart of the Tien Shan, or 'Celestial '. With Khan Tengri 'conquered', alpinists turned their attention to the other mountains in the region. In 1937, Kazakh alpinists climbed the 6371m Chapaev, and in the same year, Moscow alpinists Leonid Gutman, Evgenii Ivanov and Aleksander Sidorenko made an ascent of a nameless peak at head of the Zvezdochka glacier. This summit, subsequently identified as Pic Pobeda (7439m), is distinctly seen in the photo-panorama given by Merzbacher to the Russian Geographical Society in 1903. However, rather than a summit, it is an enormous rock-ice wall, approximately 25km long. Participants in all the expeditions to this region had noted that the peak might be comparable in height to Khan Tengri itself, but nobody hazarded a guess that it might exceed it. The charm of the marble pyramid of Khan Tengri was too powerful. MOUNTAINEERING IN THE TIEN SHAN 29

Pobeda The outbreak of the Second World War meant that mountaineering was temporarily forgotten, despite which, at the height of the war in 1943, an expedition of military topographers set to work at the head of the Inylchek glacier. They obtained an unexpected result of great significance for post­ war Soviet mountaineering: Khan Tengri was found not to be the highest summit in the Tien Shan; I5km to the south, at the head of Zvezdochka glacier, stood a summit 7439m in height. In 1946 this peak was called 'Pobeda', Russian for 'victory'. In the early post-war years Pobeda was, understandably, the main goal of alpinists. In 1938 the first ascent of the previous year was put to into doubt. It was suspected that Leonid Gutman and his colleagues had not reached the summit, and although the climbers themselves objected, this was not vigorously, for they had made the ascent in conditions of low visibility. Thus it was that at the end of July 1955, two expeditions arrived at the Zvezdochka glacier as participants in the annual mountaineering championships ofthe 's Ministry of Sports. These were military expeditions from Uzbekistan and , headed by Colonel Ratsek andEv-8enii Kolokolnikov, respectiy:ely._The_alpinistsjn_hoth groups were__ quite sure that once on the summit, they would be considered the first climbers to reach the Victory Peak, a feat which would almost certainly guarantee the top award in the championship. The Uzbek alpinists decided to climb the North Ridge, while the Kazakh alpinists went for the long, but avalanche-safe East Ridge. To avoid the dangers of over-zealous competition, the Mountaineer­ ing Federation specified an ascent order, first priority being given to the . On 15 August, however, ignoring the Kazakh's priority, the Uzbek alpinists started to storm the summit. On the same day, in the evening, located at a height of 5000m and aware of the violation, the Kaza­ khs decided to force their own ascent, but did so without waiting to gain sufficient acclimatisation. In two days their group of 16 ascended 1300m, at which point altitude made itself felt. Four alpinists felt ill and turned back, whilst the remaining twelve continued. Two days later, having gained only another 400m, they opted to stay overnight near the East Summit. The weather was fair and calm, with nothing to suggest the troubles that lay ahead. The exhausted alpinists pitched their tents poorly, notbothering to protect themselves from the wind. At midnight, however, the weather started to worsen and by 2am a storm had developed. The wind soon blew the tents down, overwhelming them with snow, but weakened and dispirit­ ed by altitude sickness, the climbers were unable to fight the elements. They cut through the tents· in order not to suffocate, but the wind immediately tore the tents apart, until soon only one remained undamaged. Since this tent was too small to admit them all, the strongest in the group tried to dig a snow cave, but hit ice a metre below the surface. The following 30 THE ALPINE JOURNAL 2000 morning, Shipilov, the team leader, ordered everybody capable of moving to descend. At this same time, a group of experts were staying on the Zvezdochka glacier, under the Chon Teren col. During the four days of foul weather which followed, the climbers were not visible to them, but they were not too concernedby this, convinced that such a large, strong team could survive any storm. When the weather improved, however, two of the experts waded through deep snow towards the col, and at noon spied tracks that descended from the col but ended near a crevasse. In its gloomy depths they could see no one, but heard a weak response to their calls and so dropped a rope down, only to lift out first a rucksack, tied on by an unknown climber, and then the unknown mountaineer himself. After spending 26 hours up to his knees in icy water in the crevasse, the soaked victim, one Usenov, was the only survivor of the team of twelve. The following summer, in 1956, the Zvezdochka glacier was visited by a group from the Moscow team 'Spartak', headed by the familiar figure of Vitalii Abalakov. The team was strengthened by several Kazakh alpinists, including Ural Usenov. The expedition was well-trained and equipped, and after preliminary acclimatisation up to 6200m, dug roomy snow caves at two intermediate camps, and stocked them with food, equipment and benzine. Six days after leaving base camp on the Zvezdochka glacier, all eleven members stood on the summit of Pobeda, having sat out the foul weather that had overtaken them at Camp 2 in the comfort of a snow cave. There, together with the others, stood Ural Usenov, and we can only wonder how he felt as he looked along the East Ridge to where so many of his friends lay dead. How prosaic this first ascent of Pobeda had been ­ with no frostbite, no failures and no traumas. No traumas, that is, until the photographs by the Abalakov group were compared with Leonid Gutman's photographs which revealed that in 1938, Gutman, Sidorenko and Ivanov had indeed already reached the summit, and were therefore the first ascensionists of Pobeda.2

Traversing Pobeda The next expedition to Pobeda was undertaken in 1958. In terms of its results, it is still considered the most successful expedition to the mountain to date, the main objective being the traverse of the East and Central Summits from the Chon Teren Pass. The first expedition to deploy aviation, containers of food and equipment were parachuted to the base camp on the Zvezdochka glacier. From here 44 alpinists set out, all of them reaching the East Summit four days later, among them three women. From here a smaller group went on to reach the Central Summit on 16 August, thus completing the first traverse of two of Pobeda's three summits. The success of the 1956 and 1958 ascents gave a measure of hope that the equation for a successful ascent of Pobeda had now been determined. Subsequent events, however, showed this was not the case. In 1959, Uzbek MOUNTAINEERING IN THE TIEN SHAN 3I military alpinists again came to the Zvezdochka glacier. As had been the case four years earlier, a route along the North Ridge was selected. This is the easiest and the shortest way to the summit, but is also the least safe because of avalanche-bearing slopes and a heavily corniced ridge in the lower section. The expedition was well-equipped and organised, but the 1955 events had seemingly taught the alpinists nothing, for the Uzbeks still pursued the idea of storming Pobeda in alpine style, without prior acclimatisation. In their coaches' opinion, at a certain altitude it would be necessary to slow the rate of ascent. Itwas decided, therefore, that from an initial group of 25 alpinists and porters, the weaker members would leave their burdens as high as possible and then descend. 7100m was reached by the attack group and four members of the auxiliary group, before altitude sickness began to take its toll, and the plan to fall apart. The weaker climbers found they were unable to descend under their own steam, whilst the fitter members realised that they were not strong enough to assist in any way. Rescue operations were started with the aid of Kazakh alpinists, but at a final cost of three lives, since none of the 60 participants of the large Uzbek expeditiQn-were-.able-.tQ-help-their-cQlleagues~.------The following summer, a joint expedition of military alpinists of the Uzbekistan and Moscow trade unions attempted Pobeda. Their purpose was to traverse the three summits from west to east, but first they decided to remove the bodies of the three alpinists who had died the previous year, and thereby acclimatise well. Tragically, during their ascent of the North Ridge, 29 alpinists were caught in an avalanche, 10 of them being killed. The expedition was abandoned. In 1961, an expedition to Pobeda was organised by the Georgian Alpine Club. Again the purpose was to traverse the three summits from west to east. The expedition was not large, but included experienced alpinists such as Mikhail Khergiani, one of the best alpinists in the Soviet Union at that time. Well-known Moscow alpinist Kirill Kuzmin was also invited. Other members of the group were Dzhumber Medzmariashvili, Teimuraz Kukhianidze, Iliko Gabliani and the younger brother of Mikhail Khergiani, who was also called Mikhail, although his comrades called him 'Little Misha'. It took the team seven days to climb to the previously unreached 69l8m West Summit, to pass the long ridge in the direction of the Central Summit, and to climb up to an altitude of 7250m. On the eighth day the weather was fine, but very cold. The group left the bivouac at 1O.30am, but an hour later Little Misha felt incapable of continuing. As the only person in the team who had not climbed before to such a high altitude, he was obviously unable to reach the top. After a short conversation, they decided to abandon the traverse, and instead it was agreed that the two Mishas would descend to the last bivvi at 7250m and pitch the tent there; the remaining four would go to the summit and descend to the tent before dark. 32 THE ALPINE JOURNAL 2000

At 2.30pm the four alpinists left their rucksacks on the ridge and headed to the top. The weather was still fine, and by 5. 30pmboth ropes had climbed to the summit, but had become separated from one another because of an abrupt worsening of the weather. A head-on wind and low visibility substantially complicated the descent, and it was long into the night before Kirill Kuzmin and Dzhumber Medzmariashvili found their rucksacks. The weather improved somewhat, and in the darkness they continued their descent towards the tent. At one point on the snow-ice ridge, Dzhumber slipped and both alpinists dropped down towards the Zvezdochka glacier, 2500m below. They were lucky, however, as the rope caught on a snow bulge and stopped their fall. With enormous difficulty, they struggled back up to the ridge, prepared their sleeping bags, and fell asleep. Again, the mountain had been merciful, for the weather was very cold but calm. The second rope, Teimuraz Kukhianidze and Iliko Gabliani, were less fortunate. They could not find their rucksacks in the darkness and spent the night in a snow hole they excavated with their ice axes. The next morning, however, all six were [mally reunited and safely descended to the ridge that leads to the West Summit. Here, at about 7000m, they stayed overnight. Little Misha and Iliko Gabliani felt very ill, but the others were all right, and the real danger seemed to have passed. In the morning, however, Iliko came out of the tent, sat down on a stone and died. Iliko's death came as a great shock to the group, who placed the body upon a rock shelfbefore moving off. For a day and a half they traversed the entire ridge to the West Summit, and then safely descended to 6600m. The two Mishas descended first, followed by the other three, who shared one rope. On the steep rock wall Teimuraz fell while abseiling, taking the rope with him. The l500m drop to the glacier meant there was no chance of survival, and worse still, Kirill and Dzhumber now had to descend without a rope. At the steep ice slope, Dzhumber, in nailed boots but without cram­ pons, also fell onto the glacier, whilst Kirill, with enormous difficulty, was able to descend to the glacier where his two comrades were waiting for him. Thus, by 1961, a total of 25 men had climbed to the Pobeda summit, while 27 had died during the attempt. The three great tragedies, with so many casualties, forced alpinists to think about the causes. On the one hand, they themselves had made mistakes which in each case had resulted in tragedy. On the other hand, the uniqueness of the region had only just become apparent, especially with respect to Pobeda. An alpinist's joke of that time was that the mountains in the USSR can be divided into two groups: the first is Pobeda, and the second all the other mountains together. What are the characteristics of the region, and what is the difference between Pobeda and the many other seven-thousanders? Firstly, Pobeda and Khan Tengri are the planet's northernmost seven-thousanders, and are characterised by very low temperatures, even in midsummer. Secondly, because of the abundant snowfall, the slopes of the area are seriously avalanche-prone. Thirdly, the Kokshaal range separates two climactically MOUNTAINEERING IN THE TIEN SHAN 33 opposing zones, with the hot Taklamakhan desert on one side, and the cold Tien Shan on the other. Fourthly, the mountain ranges here are at right angles to one another, creating a trap for westerly winds, which frequently exceed 90mph. With such winds, the air pressure at 7400m corresponds to that at 8000m in calm weather. Fifthly, all the routes up Pobeda are technically difficult and time-consuming. Successfully reaching the summit has to be followed by several days of difficult and dangerous descent. Lastly, bad weather in this region is considered normal, but worse than normal weather is real hell.

Recent climbs The following ten years were more successful for the alpinists involved, and several six-thousanders were climbed: Nehru 6742m, Military Topographers 6873m, Druzhba 6800m, and Shater 6637m. The spectacular Marble Ridge and the North Wall of Khan Tengri were also successfully tackled. The traverse of the three summits of Pobeda was performed in both directions, and the very difficult traverse from Gorki to Khan Tengri peak was also completed. Helicopters took the place of horse caravans and it appeared that things were moving ahead, when politics intervened again. The early sixties saw worsening relations between the USSR and China, and finally, in the early seventies, China raised territorial claims over the Tien Shan, the Inylchek glacier being closed to visitors for eight years. It was only in 1980-81 that a single group of alpinists was permitted to visit the region to carry out topographic work, while for all other alpinists the area was opened in 1982. Since then, the most notable ascents made in the region have been the ascent of the North Wall of Central Pobeda in 1982, the ascent of the North Wall of East Pobeda in 1984, and the winter ascents of Khan Tengri in 1992 and Pobeda in 1990. All these climbs were made by strong Kazakh military alpinists, and just how strong they were was demonstrated by the events of the summer of 1990, when a team of five Kazakh alpinists, led by Valerii Khrishchatiy, climbed to the western summit of Pobeda. They then traversed the mountain's Central and East Summits, before continuing over the 15 summits of the Kokshaal, Meridianal and Khan Tag ridges, before finally ending up on Khan Tengri itself. The entire 73.6km Pobeda-Khan Tengri traverse was completed in just 15 days of self-supported effort!

Conclusion We can easily appreciate the high level of professional skills, the will, and the unwavering purposefulness of the people that make both ordinary and extraordinary ascents in the Khan Tengri region. However, it is also obvious that each ascent here depends on good fortune. This is especially true for Pobeda, which alpinists admit can only be climbed when the mountain grants us 'permission'. A good demonstration of this is the fate of a Bielorussian team, whose first attempt to ascend Pobeda along the North 34 THE ALPINE JOURNAL 2000

Ridge was made in August 1980. At 6500m they were overtaken by bad weather, and for seven days were obliged to sit in their tents and struggle against hurricane-force winds. When the weather improved they had neither the energy nor sufficient food or fuel to continue the ascent. A year later, they again attempted the North Ridge, reaching only 6200m before again being obliged to turn back. After two failures, the alpinists were resolute, and in 1982 made one more attempt. They abandoned the unhappy North Ridge and chose to climb the long ridge from the West Summit, now considered the normal route. Less than lOOm from the West Summit, a gale began, the temperature dropping to below minus 54°C, and this in early August. The alpinists dug a snow cave and for six days sat out the storm. Their consumption of food and fuel was strictly limited, but eventually the weather improved and the group continued their ascent. It took them one and a half days to climb the West Summit, traverse the West Ridge and ascend to the 7100m. On the icy ridge, they were overtaken by hurricane winds, with neither upward nor downward movement possible, a great deal of effort being required to excavate a shelf and pitch the tent. The hurricane lasted for ten days and, when it ended, there was no food left at all. Despite this, all six climbed_on up~to~the summit and, after a five­ day descent, returned safely to base camp. Pik Pobeda had granted permission to a very tenacious team.

Robin Walker writes: As we sat having supper with them on the S. Inylchek glacier, the natural modesty of Dimitri Botchkov and Nikolai Chetnikov prevented them from telling us that they were responsible for this expedition. The same modesty made them question the value of publishing their joint knowledge. Thankfully common sense prevailed, although any mistakes are the result of my translation of the original text.

NOTES

See also Sir Edward Peck's valuable article 'The Search for Khan Tengri' inAJ101,131-139,1996. 2 Abalakov and his team are generally accepted as the first ascensionists: see High Asia by Jill Neate, p182, and the list compiled by Yevgeniy Gippenreiter and Vladimir Shataev in AJ101, 124, 1996. 5. In 1931 Pogrebetsky's team climbed Khan Tengri up the dangerous Semenovskogo Glacier to the West Col. Pik Chapaev, the cause of most of the menace, is visible L. (Chetnikov collection) (P26)

6. Vitaly Abalakov's 1956 team on Pobeda sat out sustained bad weather in the comfort of their caves at Camp 2, but their comfortable ascent would end in disappointment. (Botchkov collection) (P26) 7. Dimitri Botchkov on the W Ridge of Khan Tengri. Botchkov and Chetnikov were permitted to climb Khan Tengri to determine the mountain's exact height. On the ridge, winds were so fierce that large stones were hurled into the air. (Botchkov collection) (P26) 8. Originally known as Khan Tengri by local people, the Russian Pobeda figures as Tomur on current Chinese maps of the Tien Shan. There are several very hard routes on the N Wall of Pobeda Central, the first of which was put up in 1982, the year restrictions to the area were relaxed. (Chetnikov collection) (p26)

9. A more detailed view of the central and upper sections of the N Ridge of Pobeda, the scene of the 1959 and 1960 tragedies. (Chetnikovcollection) (p26) Clockwise from above: 18. Petr Semenov, whose 1856 and 1857 journeys confirmed the existence of glaciers in the Tien Shan. (BOlChkov colleclion) (P26)

19. Valery Khrischaty who wasn't content with a traverse from Pobeda to Khan Tengri. Sadly, Khrischaty was killed not long after the traverse in all avalanche on Khan Tengri while guiding a British party. (BOlChkov cOlleclion) (p26)

20. Exploration in the Tien Shan took a special kind of fortitude; Ural Usenov in action. (Botchkov collection) (p26)